The Secret World of Briar Rose(36)
Thunder rumbled from black clouds sprawled across the sky. Flickers of lightning created a brassy glow on the castle walls. Lilith watched the rain patter on bare trees, then laced her fingers through Amelia’s. It was supposed to be a gesture of comfort, and yet, Amelia’s skin tingled as if she were the one struck by lightning. When Lilith pulled away, Amelia found a bundle of wilted flowers tied together by string.
“I don’t want you to throw your life away before you’ve even had the chance to live it,” Lilith said. “You do this because you assume you will die at eighteen. You won’t.”
Amelia remembered Lilith claiming the moonflowers would bloom on her eighteenth birthday. Perhaps she thought if the flowers became alive, Amelia would witness her own miracle as well. How could she tell Lilith that she wasn’t a flower waiting to bloom, but rest? Part of her yearned to turn eighteen and fall asleep, because that would mean not having to deal with expectations or responsibility. There would be no forced interactions with men, no wearing empty smiles, no late nights lying in bed and wondering why happiness was a feeling she could never grasp.
She had also fantasized meeting Malicine, the demon who was supposed to take her away. Instead of fleeing for safety, Amelia would walk right up to the demon and say, Take me. I’ve experienced little of life, and I don’t care enough to see the rest of it.
A flash of lightning crackled the sky, as if conjured from her desperate thoughts. White streaks rippled across glass windows and revealed a raven’s silhouette. The bird appeared like it had been formed by her own darkness. An invisible string pulled Amelia to her feet. She dropped the moonflower crown back in Lilith’s hands and bounded to the double doors, bursting through the exit.
Another flash of lightning revealed the bare arms of trees above her, crooked and gnarled like horns. Her heart thudded against her chest, not from fear, but a twisted version of hope that perhaps Malicine came early to collect her. Amelia ran through the woods as if she could chase after lightning and catch it in a bottle, her own version of a miracle. She heard Lilith call after her, then her godmothers, then the guards too. Thunder exploded in her ears and propelled her forward. She ran as fast as she could. The weather would aid her. No one could spot her through the pinpoint needles of rain, the darkness of trees, the way the woods curled into shadows and took her in its embrace.
Amelia chased that hope for so long that soon her feet felt like they were on fire. She threw her heels to the side and ran barefoot in the mud. Her throat strained from shouting Malicine’s name to the trees, and still, she met no response.
Even if she saw the demon, what would she say? Would she ask why she was cursed to fall asleep? Would she want to know if, when Malicine cursed her, they had also given her the desire to be unconscious forever too?
Rain pounded against Amelia’s face, turning her dress into a sopping bundle of fabric. Panic caused the world to spin as lightning blinded her eyes. She ran forward and crashed into the trunk of her tree, pain blooming across her limbs, bark biting into her skin. Her body fell backward, and she let out a cry as her ankle twisted before landing with a hard thud.
She tried getting up, but her foot felt like an anchor, swelling at her ankle and radiating pain when she tried to move. What a hopeless fate, she thought bleakly. She closed her eyes and tried to shut out the world. Still, the world insisted on carrying her along its whims, and several moments later, she felt herself lifted in the air and into another’s arms.
When she opened her eyes again, the stars swayed back and forth in the sky. Someone carried her beneath a dense tree as shield from the rain. His clothes were drenched, but Amelia could hear a slow heartbeat through his shirt, someone cold yet alive. She looked up at his jaw, a straight line that seemed carved from stone. Curls of blond hair slicked wet over sharp cheekbones. She made a sound of surprise that grabbed his attention, and suddenly a pair of eyes gazed into hers, so light blue they turned silver.
“It’s all right. Let me carry you. A girl shouldn’t be walking alone late at night. Especially in your condition.”
He offered a gentle smile, dimples forming on his cheeks. It was the kind of face that would have fluttered a girl’s heart. But the blush that crept Amelia’s cheeks was only from shame. Her eyes glanced down to the wilting fabric of her dress, the tears in the silk and waistband. Mud caked her bare feet, and her heels were gone. She had been too reckless running off like that. Part of her wanted to tell him to put her down and let her run so that she wouldn’t have to face the consequences of returning home.
“You don’t have to do this. I’d hate for my foolishness to burden you.”
“Nonsense. You’re as light as a feather. I could carry you forever and never be tired.”
She recognized the way his words should have shot a thrill up her spine and made her feel special. Instead, she examined his promises with dispassion and wondered how someone could devote themselves so easily. Perhaps he was enthralled by her looks, a gift that she didn’t have to even work toward. Yet when he looked at her, the silver flecks of his eyes burned with something deeper, a determination that she could not place.
He told her his name was Ezran, and that he would take her home after the storm passed. The rain dissipated eventually, and with her ankle sprained, he carried her throughout their journey to the castle.
She was too caught up by his sturdy presence to notice the glowing tall windows as they reached her home. Lilith’s voice called from the entrance, and there it was, the tingle in her skin, the ache of her heart. The way it was supposed to feel with handsome men like the one holding her.